As expected, it proved a fierce competition among the top contenders, including Baldwinsville, at both of Thursday night’s Section III Class AA championships at SRC Arena.
When it all was done, the boys Bees had 83 points for third place, with Liverpool (99 points) edging Cicero-North Syracuse (96 points) for the top spot. B’ville’s girls, earning 64 points, were fourth behind C-NS, Liverpool and Fayetteville-Manlius.
Of the three boys relays, the Bees won two of them, starting with the 4×400, where Nick Kruger, Michael Lawrence, Spencer Wirtheim and Connor Waldron went three minutes, 36.70 seconds to edge Liverpool (3:70.08) by less than half a second.
Later, in the 4×800, B’ville prevailed again, with Connor McManus, Jack Michaels, Colin Delaney and John Arvantides pairing up to go 8:27.88, nearly eight seconds clear of runner-up Liverpool’s 8:35.68.
Lawrence got second place in the 600-meter run in 1:27.79 behind Rome Free Academy’s Devon McClendon (1:26.61), while Jon Formoza was seventh in 1:33.37 and Sam Kellner (1:38.13) was ninth.
Kellner, in 2:37.50, was second to C-NS’s Nathan Poirier (2:36.47) in the 1,000-meter run, with Formoza fifth in 2:40.22.And in the 300-meter dash, Garrett Selover went 36.77 seconds, trailing only C-NS star Jeremiah Willis (36.04), with Waldron fifth in 38.26 seconds and Lawrence (39.04) in eighth place.
In the 4×200, Selover, Sam Mellinger, David Mahar and Malik Davis were third in 1;36.88. On his own, Selover got sixth place in the 55-meter dash in 6.81 seconds, with Mellinger (6.97) 10th.
Aaron Sprague, clearing 9 feet 6 inches, got second place in the pole vault to Liverpool’s Jamie Vong (10’6”), with Matt Komuda third by topping 9 feet. Robert Thompson earned a sixth-place long jump of 19’5 ¾”.
Ryan Micho topped 6’1” to finish second in the high jump as Kruger was fifth and Wirtheim sixth, each of them, along with Owen Weaver, topping 5’6”. Kruger was fifth in the triple jump (39’4 ¼”) as Steven Miller was eighth in the weight throw, heaving it 38’9 ¾”.
Moving to the girls sectional AA meet, B’ville’s Lauren Addario ruled in the 55 sprint, her time of 7.43 seconds just ahead of a pack that included teammate Karen Ekure, who finished third in 7.55 seconds.
Another win came from Maya Hewitt, who cleared 9 feet in the pole vault as no one else could top 7’6”. Kyra Sattler was 10th with 6’6”.
Addario went 36’6” in the triple jump, second to C-NS’s Brooke Blaisdell, who won with 37’ ¼”. Ekure was third in the 300 in 43.75 seconds and, with Addario, Courtney Bostic and Allyson Surowick, challenged in the 4×200, finishing in 1:50.93, second to Liverpool’s 1:49.81.
Justus Holden-Betts went 1:40.33 in the 600, putting her second behind C-NS’s Kate Putman (1:38.86), and also was fifth in the 3,000-meter run in 10:30.49. Holden-Betts, Anna Conklin, Olivia Creelman and Kathryn Nice were fifth (10:16.67) in the 4×800.
Surowick was fifth in the long jump, going 15’4”, and got seventh place in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.63 seconds. Sarah Smiley had a fifth-place weight throw of 32’7 ½”, with Kathryn Mitts 11th and Lauren Shaler 12th. Olivia Muscolino, Margaret McClain, Bailey Nicholson and Brianna Natoli were seventh in the 4×400 in 4:43.05.
